Nick Palatas

Following in the footsteps of radio personality Casey Kasem and erstwhile "Scream" star Matthew Lillard, Maryland native Nick Palatas recently inherited the role of the cowardly slacker Shaggy in the ongoing Scooby-Doo franchise. While Kasem has provided, and continues to provide, the voice for Shaggy in countless cartoons since 1969, and Lillard first donned the green shirt in the 2002 theatrical feature, Palatas was cast as a prequel version of the goateed detective in 2009's "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins," which premiered on the Cartoon Network in September of that year. While most of the franchise's installments begin with the "gang" (Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma) as a cohesive group with a shared history, "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins" backtracks to illustrate how the five came together in the first place. The success of that movie, which was the most watched telecast in the history of the Cartoon Network, led to Palatas being offered a continued role in the franchise. He reprised his performance as Shaggy in the 2010 "Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster," which sets the crew up with one of their famous "getaway" mysteries, while also dealing with a rarely-mentioned romantic link between Shaggy and the brainy Velma. In addition to perpetuating the super-hungry hero, Palatas has also appeared in a few short films, most recently as Dylan Avery in Andrew Ari Clibanoff's 2011 short, "Air We Breathe."